I'm trying to make a cake for a coworker (mostly as a thank you for being so encouraging about my hobby) for his 30th birthday Saturday. Originally, I'd just planned to put together a stein-shaped cake, but then I started thinking about cake flavors and filling.
I've just about decided on a chocolate red wine cake, because that's about the only alcohol I keep on hand for cooking. Unfortunately, all the recipes I've found are intended to make a bundt with either wine glaze or powdered sugar.

I need a buttercream that won't take away from the cake but will allow me to cover it with fondant and isn't boozy so it can either be eaten at work or he can share with his 1 and 5 year old kids.

Thanks for any ideas!

How about a cream cheese buttercream? it wouldn't be overly sweet and I don't think it would take away from the flavor of your cake. Chocolate and red wine sounds like a very interesting combination by the way!There are recipes for many cream cheese icings in the recipe section here.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but your title cracked me up!

I know that you are thinking the alcohol cooks out and that it will be fine, which most of it does. But you also have to keep in mind, unless you are dumping a ton of alcohol into the icing, you aren't going to get anyone buzzed off of cake. Plus extracts are made from alcohol, so all of your cakes already have alcohol in the icing.

I understand flavorings have alcohol - I've been looking at making my own vanilla extract - but there's also a huge difference in the amount of alcohol in a couple teaspoons of extract and a cup of wine. I was originally considering adding some of the wine to the buttercream but its a lot easier to just make sure it's safe for the 1 year old.

This particular coworker came to me a few months ago to find out what kind of icing to make for his 5 year old to put together a gingerbread house, and then that he didn't have to use unpasturized eggs whites, because that made him nervous.

Sometime's its less work to avoid the worry ahead of time.

Oh I understand. My icing recipe has a 1/2c liquid as most, so when you divide that out, it really isn't that much. When I've used alcohol in icing I've actually done more a half and half, because the alcohol does evaporate out and will leave the icing drier.

Since it is a chocolate cake and you are covering it in fondant, why not make ganache?

And as usual, my girl, TexasSugar, has hit the nail on the head! Ganache is definitely what you should use!